Wesleyan's Twelfth President

Edwin D. Etherington

1967-1970
B.A., LL.B., J.D. (1924-2001)

"The independent liberal arts colleges stand as a bulwark against bigness and sameness in education."

A native of Bayonne, New
Jersey, Edwin D. Etherington was born on December 25, 1924. He
graduated
from Wesleyan in 1948 after serving in the U.S. Army during World War
II
and then received a law degree from Yale University. In 1962, he was
chosen as the chief executive of the American Stock Exchange, the
youngest person ever to be so elected.

When he was named president of Wesleyan during
a tumultuous time in United States history, he sought to bring changes
to the
university. He re-established coeducation, directed that enrollment of
students
of color be increased, and began a major revision of the curriculum.
Etherington
led the drive to create the Center for African American Studies, oversaw
the
building of the distinctive Center for the Arts, and established a
scholarship
program for Connecticut community college graduates, the Etherington
Community
College Scholarship Program, which offers outstanding students from
Connecticut
community colleges a chance to attend Wesleyan.

Etherington believed that students were "our
best hope for a correction of the imbalances and distortions of a
complicated
world" and acted accordingly. He tried to balance the issues of the day,
many of
which concerned student unrest over the Vietnam War, with academic
priorities.

Resigning in February 1970 to become a
Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Connecticut,
Etherington
was unsuccessful in this endeavor. He later became chairman of the
Center for
Voluntary Action in Washington, D.C., and then of the National
Advertising
Review Board. A director of several companies, he died on January 8,
2001.